Hedge Fund Lunch Break

Just wondering how long you guys take for lunch at work. Do you typically go out for lunch or simply grab something and eat at your desk?

Personally I prefer to take around an hour off to clear my head a little - and most guys here do the same.

 

Depends on the firm i guess. At my fund everyone just brings back their food and eat at the desk. Sometimes they go out for longer if they need to meet someone (for business or personal). I enjoy taking a break so I normally would take longer, especially if my friends at other funds wanna catch up too. It's pretty flat so no one at my place really cares about that as long as you get your work done...

But at my previous PE fund, not much time for lunch - always back to the desk....(obviously)

 
mrb87:

I eat at my desk; I'm usually gone for no more than 15 minutes getting food.

Same here. I prefer not to bring lunch to work - which gives me an excuse to walk downstairs to pick something up for 10-15 mins. I eat almost every meal at my desk. I really don't think the PM's would mind if I took 30 mins to eat lunch out but I'm usually too busy around noon to take off.

Dinner = seamless to desk.

 

seamless delivered to my desk

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Stupid as it sounds, at a lot of funds, if performance is good you can work remotely or show up whenever the hell you feel like it...when you're down people start caring more about face time.

  1. Not by any means the rule, but it is more common in more short-term, market-oriented shops. If you're not glued to a trading screen or need to be on call to clients as part of your job your team may just be antisocial.
  2. Other than finding a shop with a better cultural fit, your best bet is probably to try to schedule more of your management meetings/conference presentations/sell-side meetings either right before or after lunchtime so that you could work in a meeting with someone on your way there/back without people wondering where you were.
 

40/60 bring back vs. eat at place depending on work load. I've always thought the eat at the desk move to be one of the dumbest face time aspects of finance. It really only takes 10-15 minutes to eat a sandwich somewhere and it provides a nice little break. Nothing is gained from "losing" those 15 minutes yet a lot of people/firms have this silly culture that opposes it.

 

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